Top 8 Feature Match: Jonathan Cortez vs. Angel Flores

September 26th, 2010

Angel Flores is here in the Top 8 piloting a Gemini Deck like one that made the top cut 3 weeks ago in YCS Toronto. But his opponent is Jonathan Cortez, a Machina Gadget Duelist. Machina Gadgets are usually a pretty good matchup for Gemini, since an early ElementalHeroStratos can create enough momentum to leave the Gadget Duelist on the defensive.

Flores opened with ReinforcementoftheArmy, BookofMoon, EffectVeiler, Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, MysticalSpaceTyphoon, and GeminiSpark. Reinforcement got him ElementalHeroStratos from his Deck, and he Summoned it to search out ElementalHeroNeosAlius. He Set Book and Typhoon.

Cortez Summoned RedGadget, but Flores negated its effect with EffectVeiler. Cortez destroyed Stratos with SmashingGround, then attacked with RedGadget.

Cortez destroyed Thunder King with another SmashingGround, and discarded 2 MachinaFortress to Special Summon 1 of them. He attacked, and Flores turned his Fortress face-down with Book of Moon to block the damage. With 2 cards left in-hand Cortez ended.

Flores drew Honest, Summoned Neos Alius, and Set GeminiSpark.

Cortez Flip Summoned MachinaFortress, and attacked, but lost it to GeminiSpark. He Set a Spell or Trap.

Flores passed.

Cortez Set a Spell or Trap.

Flores used E – Emergency Call to search his Deck for ElementalHeroNeosAlius. He Summoned it, but Cortez removed it with BottomlessTrapHole. The Duel stood at 7400 Life Points to 6700, with Cortez in the lead.

He Summoned MachinaGearframe, searched his Deck for MachinaForce, and attacked for 1800 Battle Damage. Flores responded with MysticalSpaceTyphoon, destroying Cortez’s SolemnJudgment and clearing his own Spell and Trap Card Zone so he could Special Summon Gorz. Cortez cleared the field in Main Phase 2 with DarkHole, ending with 2 cards in hand.

Flores had 4 cards in hand next turn, and Summoned Honest to make a quick attack. He bounced it back to his hand with its effect, and Set 2 cards to his back row.

Cortez discarded Machina Force to Special Summon Machina Fortress, but Flores destroyed it with Torrential Tribute. He Set a Spell or Trap.

Flores Summoned Honest, and attack, but Cortez activated Dimensional Prison. Flores saved his Honest with Book of Moon.

Cortez Summoned Yellow Gadget, got Green Gadget from his Deck, and activated Monster Reborn to bring back his Fortress. Fortress attacked to destroy Honest, and Yellow Gadget made a direct attack. Flores had 3700 Life Points left.

He drew DoomcaliberKnight, Summoned it, and attacked to destroy YellowGadget. He Set a Spell or Trap.

Cortez attacked Doomcaliber, destroyed it, and Summoned GreenGadget in Main Phase 2 to get Red Gadget from his Deck.

Flores drew and Set a Spell or Trap, then Set a monster.

Cortez attacked with MachinaFortress, destroying Flores’ Honest. GreenGadget made another direct attack. Cortez Set SolemnWarning, and when he used it to negate Flores’ attempt at Special Summoning CyberDragon next turn, Flores was out of options and had to concede!

Angel Flores gets off to a very strong start, but a grinding pace and plenty of monster removal triumphs in the end, as Jonathan Cortez wins the first Duel of the Match. Both Duelists appeared to make heavy use of their Side Decks.

Flores started Duel 2 with GeminiSpark, DimensionalPrison, ElementalHeroNeosAlius, ThunderKingRai-Oh, DoomcaliberKnight, and SolemnWarning. He Summoned Thunder King, and Set Prison and Warning.

Cortez destroyed Thunder King with SmashingGround, then tried to Summon MachinaGearframe. Flores negated the Summon with SolemnWarning. Cortez Set a single card to his back row and ended.

Flores Summoned DoomcaliberKnight, attacked, and scored a direct hit. He Set the TorrentialTribute he’d drawn this turn.

Cortez discarded 2 MachinaFortresses and Special Summoned 1 of them. He then attacked, but Flores responded with DimensionalPrison.

Flores drew PotofDuality, and used it to reveal another Duality, plus Honest and FossilDynaPachycephalo. He took Honest, then Summoned Neos Alius. Then he made 2 more direct attacks, dropping Cortez to 2300 Life Points. He Set a card to his back row.

Flores drew MonsterReborn! He activated it, Special Summoned Thunder King, and attacked to destroy YellowGadget. Cortez was down to 1600 Life Points.

Cortez Set a Spell or Trap, Summoned Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind, halved Thunder King’s ATK and DEF, then ended without attacking.

Flores attacked with Thunder King, and powered over Gale’s higher ATK with Honest.

Cortez Set a second Spell or Trap.

Thunder King attacked next turn, but Cortez activated MirrorForce. Flores next got ElementalHeroStratos with E – Emergency Call. He lost the Stratos to BottomlessTrapHole when he tried to Summon it, but got another Neos Alius from his Deck with Stratos’ effect. He activated PotofDuality, revealing SystemDown, CyberDragon, and SolemnWarning. He took the Dragon into his hand.

Cortez Summoned GreenGadget to get RedGadget from his Deck, then discarded 2 copies of Red Gadget to try and bring back MachinaFortress. When it hit the field, Flores flipped TorrentialTribute and Cortez conceded!

Angel Flores takes the second Duel with authority, overwhelming Cortez with big attacker after big attacker! Whoever won the next Duel would move on to the Top 4, with a strong shot at winning a set of the Darklord Prize Cards.

Cortez opened with MachinaGearframe, getting Machina Fortress from his Deck. He Set 3 cards to his back row.

Flores’ hand was PotofDuality, SolemnWarning, ElementalHeroNeosAlius, DimensionalPrison, E – Emergency Call, and GeminiSpark. He activated Call to get ElementalHeroStratos from his Deck, Summoned Neos Alius, and Cortez responded with BottomlessTrapHole. Flores Chained GeminiSpark, Tributed Alius, and destroyed his opponent’s SolemnWarning. He then Set a Spell or Trap, activated Duality, and revealed SolemnWarning, FossilDynaPachycephalo, and Effect Veiler. He took the Warning, Set 2 cards to his back row, and ended.

Cortez tried to Summon BreakertheMagicalWarrior, and lost it to Solemn Warning. Machina Gearframe attacked for 1800 Battle Damage.

Flores Summoned ElementalHeroStratos, got another Neos Alius from his Deck, and activated another PotofDuality to reveal DoomcaliberKnight, CyberDragon, and RoyalOppression. He took DoomcaliberKnight. He attacked with Stratos, trying to trade with MachinaGearframe, but Stratos was removed with DimensionalPrison. Flores Set a third Spell or Trap.

Cortez tried to Summon YellowGadget, but was stopped by SolemnWarning. He attacked with MachinaGearframe and lost Gearframe to DimensionalPrison. He Set a Spell or Trap.

Flores Summoned DoomcaliberKnight, and attacked, but his monster was removed by DimensionalPrison. He Set a second Spell or Trap.

Cortez discarded 2 MachinaFortresses, tried to Summon 1 of them, but the Summon was negated by another SolemnWarning.

Flores activated ReinforcementoftheArmy, got another Alius, and Summoned it to attack directly. The Duel stood at 6100 Life Points to 200.

Cortez was down to topdecking, and drew PotofDuality. He revealed MysticalSpaceTyphoon, Gearframe and GreenGadget. He took the Gearframe, Summoned it, and Doomcaliber was Tributed to negate Gearframe’s effect.

Flores Set a Spell or Trap and Summoned Neos Alius. He had 2 set back row cards and Alius, and attacked.

Cortez drew a card and Set it to his back row.

Flores Drew and Set a card to his back row, and Set another Spell or Trap. He lost it to MysticalSpaceTyphoon in the End Phase, but it was a bluff – DarkHole. Flores was clearly happy that he had kept his other 2 remaining Set cards. We found out why immediately.

Cortez tried to Summon another Gearframe, but Flores had SolemnJudgment! He dropped to 100 Life Points to negate the Summon, and Cortez was totally out of cards. Triple SolemnWarning plus a final SolemnJudgment send Flores on his way to the Top 8!

Post-Event Analysis!See what our panel of experts had to say about this Duel after the event was over.

Jason Grabher-Meyer(The Old Man of Dueling)While Cortez had BottomlessTrapHole Set, Flores searched Stratos from his Deck, but then Summoned Neos Alius instead. To Cortez, that must’ve looked like the perfect time to activate Bottomless – he’d rather remove Alius with Bottomless, and save his Set SolemnWarning to negate Stratos’ Summon (that would stop Flores from activating Stratos’ effect). But since Bottomless doesn’t negate a Summon, Flore was able to Chain GeminiSpark to destroy Corez’s Warning. Both Duelists lost 2 cards, but Flores got to draw with Spark, and cleared the way for his Stratos next turn.

Michael Kohanim(2009 World Championship Competitor)In Duel 1, Flores activated Book of Moon to prevent Machina Fortress from scoring a direct hit for 2500 points of damage. Since it was early in the Duel and Flores still had 8000 Life Points remaining, he could have taken the hit and used the Book of Moon later on, to protect one of his monsters.

P.J. Tierney(Duelist from across The Pond)Gorz the Emissary of Darkness is one of the strongest cards available that can swing Duels back in your favor, but you must have no cards in your field in order to Summon it. With Traps and Quick-Play Spell Cards though, you can trick your opponent into thinking you don’t have Gorz in your hand (because you Set a card, preventing you from Summoning it) only to flip that Set card over in the Battle Phase. By the time you take the damage needed to Summon Gorz, your field will be empty again, and your opponent will now have a 2700 ATK monster (and a Token) to deal with. This is exactly what Flores did in Duel 1, activating Mystical Space Typhoon on one of Cortez’s cards in the Battle Phase, allowing him to Summon the Gorz in his hand while destroying one of his opponent’s cards in the process.